Cult of Mac

Don’t forget that the OS X Mavericks beta isn’t a final version—it’s meant to be used by developers to ensure that their software will work with Apple’s latest and greatest. With that disclaimer in mind, let’s check out a new little feature in the beta.

Many apps have had access to special characters before, like iChat and Messages. You’d simply click the little smiley face, for example, and get all the fun emoticons Apple has provided.

If you wanted to type a special character in a text document, though, you’d have to remember that Option-8 is a text bullet, and Option-K is the degrees symbol, and Option-2 gives you the Trademark symbol.

Now, though, in OS X Mavericks beta, you can see visually what special characters are available to you across all applications. Here’s how.

Here’s a great story: Every morning I browse through the news to find stuff to write about. One of my feeds is from the useful but flawed prMac, a site which lists new products and apps in a particularly annoying way. I found an app called Sunscreen Reapplying Reminder, which is little more than a timer app (hint: use Siri to set your reminders without having to gum up your screen with grassy sunblock).

I Tweeted about it:

Just what the world needs: Sunscreen Reapplying Reminder app https://t.co/UhmJsOy6b9

— Charlie Sorrel (@mistercharlie) June 20, 2013

And then the replies started coming. Why? The app, by developer Tania Moise, has a peculiar copyright claim…

Adobe’s entire new Creative Cloud suite has already been cracked, and it appears to be just as easy to do as it was for the old non-cloud version. Crackers have already made the tools available, just days after the official release.

If you haven’t already watched Apple’s WWDC keynote, it’s probably because you just haven’t found the time. At just under two hours long, it’s not something you can just slip into your day. But you can now watch it at your leisure on any of your electronics devices because Apple just uploaded the entire thing to YouTube.

Hazel, the must-have Mac file-wrangling utility, has just been updated to v3.1. That doesn’t sound like much, but there are some real big new features in here. for instance, it can now match dates typed inside your files, as well as upload files and more. Check it out:

"“Morning!”" That’s what this new app will say to you when you fire up your iPad at the start of the day. Only instead of bringing you bacon, pancakes and coffee it’ll put you on a more slimming diet of information: Weather, calendar, news and so on, right there on a big iPad-sized dashboard.

Not to be outdone by Instagram’s reported video product that’s set to debut tomorrow, Vine has started teasing upcoming features and design tweaks. Co-founders Dom Hofmann and Rus Yusupov have posted a couple of Vines that seem to point towards some pretty big additions, like the ability to record multiple Vines at once and save drafts.

Special video categories also seem to be in the works, allowing users to browser content based on different genres that would assumedly be curated by Vine/Twitter staff. Instead of letterboxed videos within the Vine app, a future version will likely bring make videos fill the full width of the iPhone’s screen to create a more immersive experience.

Take a look at the Vines below and use your detective skills to uncover what’s coming:

Seriously, I’m kind of tired of playing the typical RPG in which I take on the role of the savior of the world. This kind of power fantasy, wish fulfillment story has its place, but boy would it be nice if we could see some different stories out there.

The developers behind Kickstarter project, Unrest, must have felt the same way, as their new online RPG is set in ancient India, for one thing (not a Tolkeinesque forest complete with Orcs and Elves), and will let you play as the ordinary folk struggling to maintain their freedom, safety, peace, and keep their children fed and happy.

World of Warcraft, this isn’t.

Over at The Atlantic, a fascinating study has been published that connects location data from smartphones with the layout of a heavily populated city. The findings are that the most iPhone activity is coming from wealthier areas, while Android usually dominates lower income districts. 

After a string of reports that MacBook replacement batteries have caught fire, Best Buy has decided to recall 5,100 units.

AP first reported news of the recall this afternoon and said Best Buy is contacting customers individually to see if they would like a battery replacement, or a Best Buy giftcard for the value of the replacement battery.

Here’s which MacBook replacement batteries are being recalled:

Would you consider yourself a tea connoisseur? Perhaps you spend more money on tea leaves than you would care to admit and your brewing process is comparable to that of a thousand-year-old Chinese farmer. Whether you’re an addict or a one who just enjoys an occasional cup, you should check out Tea for iPhone.

The app got a 2.0 update today with a new design and plenty of features.

Apple has given developers access to the first beta of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5. Given the planned release of OS X Mavericks this fall, 10.8.5 could very well end up being the last major version of Mountain Lion before Mavericks ships to the public. A developer beta of Mavericks was made available to developers the week of WWDC.

OS X 10.8.4 was officially released on June 4th and it brought a bunch of bug fixes. 10.8.5 will likely focus on bugs fixes and compatibility issues as well.

Source: Apple

Rdio has released an update to its iOS app that brings a feature called “Song Stations.” Like Apple’s recently announced iTunes Radio, you can now create a streaming radio station based on an individual song in the Rdio app. You get unlimited skips, but no ability to vote or down-vote a track to refine the station.

Song Stations are created by tapping and holding on any song in Rdio. Another nice addition is a feature called “AutoPlay.” When a playlist, album, or station has ended, Rdio can start automatically playing similar music based on what you were listening to already.

Rdio costs $10 per month for unlimited streaming on mobile and the web. You can grab today’s update in the App Store.

Source: App Store

Image: MacStories

While alternate RSS services have started popping up left and right in the wake of Google Reader’s death sentence, the strongest contender so far is certainly Feedly. In a few months, the service already has 12 million users and a pretty sophisticated platform.

Today Feedly officially turned on its own cloud sync, effectively cutting ties from Google Reader for good. The web app has also been redesigned to adapt to multiple browsers on different screen sizes without the need for a plugin.

Lytro, makers of the crazy Light Field camera that will let you refocus an image after it’s taken, is bringing its incredible editing powers to the iPhone and iPad.

This afternoon Lytro released a new iOS app that can connect to Lytro camera to import images, edit them, and then share to Twitter or Facebook. Wait, you didn’t know the Lytro had Wifi capabilities? Yep, Lytro kept it a secret from everyone but is now enabling the feature with a firmware update.

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference is just a week away and although it’s highly unlikely we’ll see any new iOS devices, we will get our first glimpse at iOS 7.

iOS 7 could be one of the biggest iOS updates to date, with many rumors claiming it will be completely overhauled with a new look and new features as Jony Ive makes his mark as the head of software design. A report that was published earlier this month claims that Apple has had to pull engineers away from OS X 10.9 to help complete it.

Personally, I couldn’t be more excited about iOS 7. I made the switch to Android just before Christmas because I found Jelly Bean on the Nexus 4 to be better than iOS 6 on the iPhone 5 at a lot of things, which I wrote about back in February.

Having used Android for four months, I’ve compiled a list of things iOS 7 should learn from its biggest rival. If Apple adds these things to its own platform — or variations of them that provide the same experience — then I think iOS 7 could be fantastic.

Check out the list below and see if you agree.

Before we get into today’s iOS 7 Beta tip, remember that any of the iOS 7 beta features and tips we share with you could change before the latest mobile operating system from Apple hits the streets this coming fall.

Also, be sure that you’re not using a beta iOS 7 on an iPhone you need to get work done on–-Apple has provided it without guarantee for developers to start working with, not for you to use on any mission critical tasks.

One of the most exciting features in the upcoming iOS 7, and it’s in the beta as well, is AirDrop, Apple’s configuration-free file sharing protocol that has been on OS X for a while. It’s making its way to iOS 7, and here’s how to use it in the beta, as well as how to set the privacy settings for the protocol.

Apple just posted videos for every session at WWDC 2013 so developers who didn’t make it out to California for the conference can still get all the new info on how to prepare their apps for iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 Mavericks.

The WWDC 2013 videos can be streamed from Safari, or you can download them straight to your desktop to watch later. You have to be a registered Apple Developer to view the videos which can be found here once you sign in.

Source: Apple

With iOS 7 Beta 1 now out on the iPhone, the next obvious question is “When is iOS 7 Beta 2” coming out? And what about Beta 3? Beta 4? When will iOS 7 go gold?

Good questions, and obviously, only Apple could tell you for sure. But Apple’s been releasing post-WWDC betas long enough at this point that it’s pretty easy to track how long on average each beta takes, and by doing so, we can not only forecast when iOS 7 will be released with a probable amount of accuracy: we can put a date on the iPhone 5S’s release.

Here’s what we think. We think iOS 7 Beta 2 will be released next Monday, the 24th. iOS 7 will go gold on September 10th, the same day the iPhone 5S will be announced. And the iPhone 5S and iOS 7 will be released on September 20th. Here’s why.

Fed up of changing your iPhone case every time you want to use an external battery pack or add a kickstand? Well, Boostcase for iPhone 5 hopes to make that a thing of the past. It’s just one case, but it’s compatible with a ton of attachments that slide into little grooves on its back and add all kinds of extra functionality to your phone.

I’ve been using Boostcase for the past two weeks, thanks to MyBanana, with a kickstand and a hand strap. But you can also get an external battery pack, a card holder, a wallet case, a clutch case, a studded jacket (which isn’t as saucy as it sounds), and more — all of which can be applied in seconds without ever having to remove the Boostcase from your iPhone.

The Boostcase itself costs $35 in a range of different colors and patterns, and for that you also get the hand strap and the kickstand. The other attachments range from $20 to $100.

So, let’s find out whether Boostcase is the only case you’ll ever need for your iPhone.

Testing a beta version of OS X 10.9 can always be risky, but to mitigate the possibility of losing all your data thanks to a crazy bug, you can always try running Mavericks in a virtual environment.

Parallels just announced that developers can install the OS X 10.9 Developer Preview in a virtual machine by using Parallels Desktop 8. To help users get started using Mavericks in Parallels, the Engineering team published the following guides:

Apple just scored a big win with the education industry last night as the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) announced it has signed a $30 million contract with Apple to supply its students with iPads in the classroom.

The terms of the contract show that Apple will provided the iPads to LAUSD at a cost of $678 per iPad. That price is a bit above retail, but the iPads will come pre-loaded with a bunch of educational software, and Apple’s giving them a three-year warranty as well.

Apple SVP Phil Schiller had the following to say about the deal in the official press release:

Steve Wozniak was the first guy to power up the vintage Apple I, the computer that gave the world Apple, Inc. and lead to all the products that followed: the Mac, the iPhone, the iPad and more.

Now Steve Wozniak is powering up the Apple 1 again, this time ceremonially for the History San Jose Museum.

Jony Ive didn’t even make an appearance at the WWDC keynote last week, but that didn’t stop his name from spreading all over Twitter and Facebook, thanks to his influence on iOS 7’s new parallax UI.

A report from the people at ViralHeat shows that Jony Ive had the most social media mentions of anyone at Apple, including CEO Tim Cook. Sir Jony Ive had 28,377 mentions across Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, while Tim cook was mentioned 20,919 times.

Not only did Jony get more attention on social media, the comments about him trended more positively than those about Cook (72% positive for Ive, 64% positive for Cook)

Here are the full social media stats about WWDC:

Readdle’s awesome Calendars+ app, which is normally priced at $6.99, is now free for 48 hours. It’s one of the best Google Calendar apps for iOS, packed with useful features and a great user interface, and it won’t cost you a penny if you download it now. But hurry!